


Much to Learn

by scurvaliciousbay



Series: Inquisitor!Kass and Companion!Mel [18]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Other, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 10:45:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16911474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scurvaliciousbay/pseuds/scurvaliciousbay
Summary: Inquisitor Kassaran Adaar explains to Solas he has much to learn when it comes to the Qunari.





	Much to Learn

**Author's Note:**

> Melarue belongs to circadian_rythm

Solas guides Kass to her own rooms, clearly wanting some privacy for whatever he wants to tell her. She amuses herself by thinking of what it could be. Maybe he has something to ask of her, something he doesn’t want the sensitive ears in the library and above to hear. Maybe it’s something embarrassing – like a foot fungus or something. But if it is a foot fungus, he really ought to just go to the healers, she is useless with fungus.

He doesn’t speak until he’s walking out onto one of her balconies, “What were you like before the Anchor?”

She follows him out, then turns her hand over to look at the green flickering light in her palm. Kass isn’t quite sure what he is asking, she doesn’t feel too much different other than the obvious. She’s changed, but she’d just as soon credit that to being thrust into a position of power as having a magical fade vagina on her hand.

“Has it affected you? Changed you in any way? Your mind, your morals, your…spirit?” He continues. She takes a deep breath and considers it.

“I think however I am different is more of a result of everything else that has happened, but I don’t think anything core has changed. Change is a constant in this world, as odd as that sounds, it doesn’t need magic for it to happen.” The thing about being trained as a Tamassran and then becoming a mother is that she can’t ever let a teaching moment go. A little lesson seems to always be on the tip of her tongue, even when speaking with a wise older man.

“True,” he says.

“Why do you ask?” She ask as he grows quiet and contemplative.

Solas purses his lips, “You show a wisdom I have not seen since… since my deepest journeys into the ancient memories of the Fade. You are not what I expected.”

Kass wonders as to what he would expect in her place. Someone that looks more like Cassandra or him? Or someone who looks like her but fits into a narrow definition? She resists the urge to frown. Benefit of the doubt and all, she still has to work with him.

“What have I done that is so surprising? On a personal level, not the whole surviving the Fade and Corypheus and avalanche stuff, because I don’t quite understand those things either.” Humor is good for these situations, helps diffuse –

“Qunari are savage creatures, their ferocity held in check only by the rigid teachings of the Qun. But you have shown a subtlety in your actions –

“I am going to stop you right there,” she interrupts, much to his shock and dismay. She shakes her head, smiling or baring her teeth in surprise, she doesn’t know, maybe both.

“Whatever you are going to say is a backhanded compliment at best and I get enough of those from the so called diplomats Josephine invites. I know what I look like, I know where I come from. What is shocking is that you, an elven man who has never lived under the Qun, presumes to tell me, a Tal-Vashoth, a former Tamassran, what my people are like. Do you not see the issue with that?”

“I am saying you are unlike the Qunari I have observed –

“And that’s just it,” she says, “the south has an extremely limited view of Qunari because all you’ve seen is our military. You’ve seen Stens and Karashoks, maybe a few others, but all related to the military. You haven’t met the bakers, the Tamassrans, the priestesses, the farmers – the people who truly make up the Qun. You are basing your entire idea of the Qun on our military. You compare my actions against the actions of a Sten when really it is like comparing a…a wolf to a tree!”

“Are you defending the Qun? After you left it?” His question is equal measure of shock and accusation and she takes a deep breath to settle herself. It’s not an uncommon confusion, one that only other Tal-Vashoth have understood. Bull gets it now, gets that at some point, the valley between the individual and the Qun is too great to cross. She can’t…explain how that valley comes about to someone who hasn’t experienced it.

“I am saying that you don’t know the Qun as well as you’d like to think. It’s not a bad thing, if you knew more, it’d probably mean the whole takeover thing was more successful. I left the Qun because I disagreed with parts of it. I disagreed with dictating when and how we could have children, ripping children from their parents, and I greatly disagree with their treatment of mages. But it is a mistake to lay the fault of the system at the feet of the people who just trying to survive it. The Qun is  _full_ of good people, they are  _normal_  people who just try to live. So to assume that Qunari, as a whole, are savage? That we’re untamed ferocious  _beasts_? That is…quite frankly abhorrent. No amount of complimenting me after that is going to make that insult go away, particularly since you’re saying how I’m not like them. I know I’m not, if I was, I wouldn’t be here.” She takes a step forward and places a hand on his shoulder, she does not bend down or shrink in any way from him.

“You don’t know, and that’s not bad. It means you have things to learn. Wisdom is also knowing when you don’t know something.” She stops to see if any of that lands in his mind to take root. She sees him think about it, rattle around in his head a bit. He has such a clear thinking face, but his lips draw and she wonders why if he can see her as wise before this, why he can’t listen to her now.

“I have seen what the Qun has to offer in the Fade –

“That isn’t the same. That isn’t living it, that isn’t…look, think what you want about the Qun – but don’t try to compliment me by saying I’m not like them and then list all these positive attributes like there aren’t any wise or compassionate people living under the Qun. I’m not so extraordinary in that aspect, Solas, I’m really not. What I am that makes me different, is that I’m rebellious. I am Tal-Vashoth. And my daughter is Vashoth, the daughter of a rebel. Learn those differences.” She turns to leave but only makes it a few steps before turning back to him.

“And if I hear of you ever say anything like ‘qunari are savages’ or whatever else you think you know about us around my daughter, you will not be allowed to speak around her. She has enough people in this world telling her what she can and cannot be, I’m determined to make sure you’re not one of them. And that isn’t the Qun in me speaking, but the mother, just so we’re clear.” She leaves her own room, feeling alight with anger and dismay.

She doesn’t think Solas is a bad man, but he sure does have some terrible ideas about the Qunari and related peoples. He espouses to knowing wisdom while eschewing wisdom he is not familiar with, it’s just so…deeply ironic.

Kass travels down to the tavern and plops into a seat next to Bull and speaks in quick qunlat, explaining what happened. Bull sighs and orders them drinks, good traditional qunari spirits that make her throat burn like a dragon’s. They don’t speak, there’s nothing to say. He gets it. Solas…Solas will think whatever he wants to think. He may change his mind, he may not, right now…right now she just wants to not prove him right about something and hit something or someone.

She has one drink before finding Ashokara. She’s in the garden, planting flowers with Melarue, laughing happily.

Qunari are savages. Please.

Melarue smudges some dirt on Ash’s nose and she laughs before rubbing intensely at her face, only managing to cover her face in dirt. It’s hilarious and cute. Melarue looks up and smiles before waving her over.

Solas is wrong, there’s proof of that all over her daughter’s smiling face. Kass sinks to her knees next to Melarue who leans against her, keeping their face happy.

“Is everything alright?” They whisper so low that only Kass can hear them.

She leans against them for a moment, “It will be. I’ll tell you later.” She turns to Ash and they play in the dirt and plant flowers for the rest of the afternoon.

**Author's Note:**

> I love Solas - I really do, he is a fascinating character and I will go down with Solavellan. However, his prejudice against the Qunari is really wrong and I wish you had the chance to call him out on it.


End file.
